1. Field of the Invention
This patent application relates to the improvements upon negative carrier assemblys used by photographic enlargers manufactured under the Omega name.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The present negative carrier assemblys have been manufactured in the same form since the year 1939. The negative carrier assembly is composed of a sandwich of 2 planar pieces of metal, aligned to each other by 4 pins. Light frequently escapes the optical light path. There is no positive provision for baffling the light escaping the optical light path. This light can falsely expose light sensitive materials and/or adversely effect measurements for the same. Later models of the negative carrier assembly have a boss attached to the bottom of the carrier that partially baffles light escaping the optical light path. This boss is attached by screws that frequently loosen with the loss of any light baffling. This boss is also used to assure alignment, on later models of the enlarger, of the negative carrier assembly and negative during exposure and printing.
Alignment of the condenser lens assembly shifts with use. This shifting necessitates frequent alignment which is usually ignored as long as possible because of inconvenience, costs, and difficulty in locating sufficiently skilled photo equipment technicians.
The present negative carrier assemblys are formed by punching which necessitates separate tooling for each size negative carrier assembly. Punching inherently deforms and stresses the metal resulting in negative carrier assemblys which are not sufficiently flat to insure results which are expected for todays' photographic state of art.